Fatima Meer

Fatima Meer Mandela biographer Fatima Meer, 81, a friend and biographer of former South African President Nelson Mandela, died Friday at a hospital in Durban, a local politician and family friend, Logie Naidoo, told the South African Press Assn. The cause of death was not given. Achmat Dangor, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said in a statement that Meer had "been a close friend of Mr. Mandela and his family for more than 60 years and was an academic and a stalwart of the struggle against apartheid."

Fatima Meer Mandela biographer Fatima Meer, 81, a friend and biographer of former South African President Nelson Mandela, died Friday at a hospital in Durban, a local politician and family friend, Logie Naidoo, told the South African Press Assn. The cause of death was not given. Achmat Dangor, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said in a statement that Meer had "been a close friend of Mr. Mandela and his family for more than 60 years and was an academic and a stalwart of the struggle against apartheid."

The day Nelson Mandela walked through her front door 41 years ago, Fatima Meer was a young student. And she was swiftly charmed by the tall, striking figure of this well-dressed lawyer. "I must admit that I sort of responded to his physicality rather than his intellect at first," Meer says, remembering that initial meeting at her parents' house near Durban. "He's a very good-looking person."

April 15, 1990 | Charles Johnson, Johnson's forthcoming novel is "Middle Passage." He is the author of "Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970." and

In "Higher Than Hope," a biography of Nelson Mandela "carefully examined, approved and authorized" by the African National Congress leader himself, Fatima Meer has organized a book that is partly a history of the ANC, partly a song of praise for the Mandela family, partly a compilation of Nelson's own writings--his letters, his eloquent self-defense in 1964, and portions of his autobiography.

April 15, 1990 | Charles Johnson, Johnson's forthcoming novel is "Middle Passage." He is the author of "Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970." and

In "Higher Than Hope," a biography of Nelson Mandela "carefully examined, approved and authorized" by the African National Congress leader himself, Fatima Meer has organized a book that is partly a history of the ANC, partly a song of praise for the Mandela family, partly a compilation of Nelson's own writings--his letters, his eloquent self-defense in 1964, and portions of his autobiography.

Racial violence spread today to white areas for the first time in South Africa's yearlong wave of unrest with whites opening fire on black and mixed-race youths who hurled gasoline bombs, police said. Whites in Cape Town's Kraaifontein district fired revolvers and shotguns at about 100 youths hurling gasoline bombs and stones at their homes in the first racial attack on white houses since countrywide rioting erupted in September last year, officials said.

When Nelson Mandela walked free from prison in February, his controversial wife, Winnie, quietly disappeared from the limelight into the role of homemaker. For several months, she seemed happy to live in her husband's shadow, rarely uttering a public word. But Mrs. Mandela started speaking out in the United States in June and, to the consternation of some of her husband's supporters back home, hasn't stopped.

In the heart of South Africa's cool, pine-scented wine country, Nelson R. Mandela rises early each morning to work out on his exercise bicycle. He spends the rest of the day reading newspapers and books, writing in his journal or listening to radio or TV newscasts. He has no telephone, but, for the first time since he went to prison in 1962, he sees frequent visitors from the outside, including political associates, and a few of them are allowed to stay for lunch. Precisely at 4 p.m.

When a biographer of Nelson R. Mandela offered the African National Congress a look at her new book a few months ago, rebel leader Oliver R. Tambo asked her to take out the tender love letters that Mandela had written from prison to his wife, Winnie. "He thought it wasn't dignified for a man of Mandela's stature," recalled author Fatima Meer. But Mandela overruled his former law partner, telling Meer: "You leave it all in. It's true. There's no reason for us to hide these things."

On the first day of Winnie Mandela's trial, a red Mercedes-Benz delivered the defendant and her husband to the courthouse steps. With a radiant smile, she stepped into the waiting horde of reporters and photographers. But the smile vanished when one newsman asked Nelson Mandela, a former trial lawyer, a question about legal strategy in his wife's case. "My husband is not on trial, sir," she snapped in a tone that suggested she was the star of this show.

The day Nelson Mandela walked through her front door 41 years ago, Fatima Meer was a young student. And she was swiftly charmed by the tall, striking figure of this well-dressed lawyer. "I must admit that I sort of responded to his physicality rather than his intellect at first," Meer says, remembering that initial meeting at her parents' house near Durban. "He's a very good-looking person."

The storybook marriage of liberation leader Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie, ended with their separation Monday after four years of romantic bliss, 27 years of apartheid-enforced separation and two trying years of political disagreement and marital discord. "I part from my wife with no recriminations," a somber Nelson Mandela told reporters summoned to African National Congress headquarters.

I discovered only too soon how quickly . . . you just fizzled into being his appendage. . . . Mandela's wife. Mandela's child. Mandela's niece. Thriving in his glory was the simplest cocoon to shield in from the glaring public, or to boost your extinct ego. I vowed that none of this would apply to me.